A New Proposal for Medicare Payments

If the email below is not displayed correctly on your smartphone or email viewer, click here.
To ensure that you always receive our newsletter, please add the e-mail address "ACPAdvocate@healthbanks.com" to your address book.

The ACP Advocate is an e-newsletter, edited by the College's Washington, DC governmental affairs division, created to provide you, our members, with succinct news about public policy issues affecting internal medicine and patient care. To learn more about ACP's Advocacy and to access the ACP Advocate archives, go to www.acponline.org/advocacy.

Welcome to The ACP Advocate

For today’s first story we have more news on Medicare payments and the SGR. We've taken a deeper look at a proposal for a new legislative framework that was released by Congress two weeks ago. The new proposal would permanently end the SGR formula and encourage a transition to value-based payment and alternative delivery models. Take a look at the article for more details about what they’d like to do.

Our second story brings you news about a new study in the November issue of Health Affairs. In a special issue on workforce issues, this study takes a look how our aging population could increase the demand for subspecialist care and the effect that may have on providing primary care. Check out the story for more about what the experts have to say.

And, finally, our third story is a look at a new report calling for patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) to incorporate a “medical neighborhood.” You may recall that ACP has advocated for a similar concept with the medical home neighbor. Read the article for more about why this is such a critical part of fully realizing the potential of the PCMH.

Current proposal would hold payment levels steady but offer new bonus and incentive options and consolidate reporting

The American College of Physicians has come out overall in support of proposed legislation, backed by Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress, that would repeal the Medicare Sustainable Growth ... »Click to read the full article

New study suggests that primary care physicians may need to assume care for patients now referred to specialists

Increased demand for specialty care will probably put added pressure on primary care physicians to take a more active role in treating complex diseases rather than referring patients to other specialists, a... »Click to read the full article

New report calls for expanding concept beyond the walls of primary care into a new "medical neighborhood"

The patient-centered medical home, already becoming an integral concept in patient care, should be expanded through technology to cover entire populations of people in what a new report calls the "medical n... »Click to read the full article

In focus

ACP Works to Fix Medicare PaymentsACP has been advocating to fix the recurring problems with Medicare payments to physicians. The week of Nov. 11 the College ran a joint advertisement in Politico, a Capitol Hill publication, alongside AAFP and AOA calling for a solution to the recurring problem with the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.

New Funds for Community Health CentersHHS has announced the award of $150 million under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to support 236 new community health centers. Community health centers provide care to patients and can also be an important resource in ensuring that uninsured patients are informed about all of the options for acquiring insurance under the new health care law and how to take advantage of them.

Become an Advocate for Internal MedicineJoin ACP’s Advocates for Internal Medicine Network (AIMn). You’ll find updates about the latest legislation affecting internists and be able to help contribute to ACP’s continued success on Capitol Hill. In addition, the program will provide you with legislative alerts designed to help you easily email or call your members of Congress to let them hear about the issues important to you and other internal medicine physicians.